Published On: 08.06.17 | 

By: 9316

On this day in Alabama history: State disbanded Magic City Guards

Aug 6 feature

The Capital City Guards were a unit of black militiamen who banded together in Montgomery following the Civil War. They remained active until the early twentieth century. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

August 6, 1887

The state government disbanded the Magic City Guards, the state’s first black militia. Organized in 1883, the Magic City Guards was one of three black militias in Alabama created after the Civil War. The state organized the militias – including the Magic City Guards in Birmingham, Gilmer’s Rifles in Mobile and the Capital City Guards in Montgomery – as the Alabama State Troopers. The latter two militias maintained a reputation as well-drilled, well-disciplined and well-uniformed into the late 19th century, but faced persistent discrimination and saw almost no action compared to their white counterparts. The state disbanded the final black militia, the Capital City Guards, in 1905.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

 

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.